Hinduism under threat in Lanka, says Karuna

M Karunanidhi, the 90-year-old DMK chief and a known baiter of the Hindu religion has warned that Hinduism is under threat in Sri Lanka. In letters to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, he has charged the Sri Lankan Government with destroying Tamil culture, language and the religion in a systematic way.

He alleged that 367 Hindu temples have been demolished and 89 Tamil villages have been renamed with Sinhala names. “As the world’s largest democracy and a country of diverse languages and religions, India has a moral obligation to stop this atrocity immediately by using its good offices,” he said in the letter, copies of which were made available to the media on Sunday.

Interestingly, Karunanidhi, who claims to be a rationalist, never greets the Hindus during Diwali, their biggest festival, though he never forgets to greet Christians and Muslims during their festivals. What is curious is the timing of the letter, which comes immediately after the elevation of Rahul Gandhi as Congress vice-president and the prime ministerial candidate of that party. Karunanidhi had declared last month in Chennai that P Chidambaram, the Union Finance Minister, is the ideal candidate for the prime ministership.

The DMK chief charged that the Lankan Government was not allocating funds for resettlement and rehabilitation of internally displaced Tamil families. According to Karunanidhi, the Sri Lankan Government is renaming Tamil villages, and redrawing village, town and district boundaries.

But Sri Lankan experts like Subramanian Swamy, president, Janata Party, scoffed at the allegations made by the DMK chief. “Temples might have been demolished in Northern Sri Lanka during the Eelam war. Some make-shift temples might have been demolished for widening roads. There is nothing wrong in renaming the Tamil villages because these villages are named after LTTE leader Prabhakaran and other thugs of the LTTE,” said Swamy. He said he would make an assessment during his forthcoming visit to Sri Lanka. “But Karunanidhi is in the habit of telling things which are not true,” said Swamy who had asked the Manmohan Singh Government recently to honour Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapakse with Bharat Ratna for wiping out the LTTE.

Parappanangadi Unnikrishna Panicker, well known astrologer and cultural adviser to former President Chandrika Kumaratunge said the demolition of Hindu temples took place only in Mullaitivu region where the Lankan army was engaged in a fierce fight with the LTTE terrorists. “The demolitions happened onluy because of the Eelam war. I have not found any anti-Hindu feelings among the Lankans,” said Panicker.

Even as Karunanidhi is lamenting about the destruction of Hindu temples, he is bent upon demolishing the Ram Sethu, a stone structure in the Indian Ocean, which the Hindus believe was built by Lord Ram. Thousands of Hindus make a beeline to the Sethu to offer prayers. Karunanidhi wants the Ram Sethu to be demolished to build Sethu Samudram, channel which he claims would bring down the sailing time from the western coast of the country to the eastern coast. He pooh-poohed the pleas from the Hindus not to demolish the Sethu. “In which engineering college did Rama study?” he had asked.

Recently, Karunanidhi had asked his prime ministerial nominee P Chidambaram, the Union Finance Minister to demolish the Ram Sethu and build the Sethu Samudram channel at the earliest.

Responses